The mighty Mount Kinabalu

The time had come. We were preparing to climb from Timpohon Gate at 1,800m to Low's Peak, the summit at 4,095m above sea level.



We stayed at Park Headquarters the night before. I was not feeling very well suffering from a cold, and not helped by the fact that it took me 45 minutes to deflate the tube in preparation for the climb.



I was surprised with my fitness, maybe because I had only climbed Mount Fansipan a few weeks ago, but I was bombing it up the mountain. I was first to reach the nightspot at Laban Rata (3,272m). The facilities were excellent, including heating and warm bedding. I chilled as people arrived into the hut. Some food and a game of Scrabble later, it was time for bed, at 6pm.

We had to leave for the final ascent to the summit at 2am. There were a lot of people on the trail and it was difficult to get any momentum. A lot of the climb was using ropes, so we had to go one at a time unless we dared ascend without the rope (like the guides). I was among the first group of climbers to reach the top, at 5:06 am. However, sunrise was not until 6am, and so had to wait at the top for almost an hour in freezing cold and very windy conditions. I frantically tried to pump up the tube, difficult as I could not feel my fingers or feet. In the meantime, Mitch had proposed to a tearful Jo, which followed a loud scream of joy.



A quick photo at the top, and I was heading right back down. I had the tube over my shoulder as it would take too long to deflate. Somehow, I made it back down the ropes (one-handed) to Laban Rata unscathed. It was a very successful journey as 10 of the 12 of us made it to the summit. Kennets was in pieces as he had the runs, but managed it. Benedicte and Nicole had no problems, and the Scots made it without any major issues too. Dennis did really well too as was up pretty fast.

There are loads of stunning pics on the blog (not all that I took), but were are a few:







We had breakfast at Laban Rata before heading back down. I was down by noon, desperate to change into comfy flip-flops. I was very sore from the descent, brutal on the knees, but very happy with the way I went.

Living in Kiau with the Dusun people

The short (by distance), but slow journey to Kiau was great fun. Either in a 4x4 jeep or at the back of a pick-up truck, the ride was very bumpy, and at one point, one of the bags fell out the side of the pick-up truck into a puddle.



Kiau is a small town at the bottom of Mount Kinabalu. It is home to Dusun/Kadazan people, the largest ethnic group in Sabah. Sappingi was our host and also the lead guide who would take us up Mount Kinabalu. We had a very warm welcome and were treated to a local dance performance by kids who were being taught English thanks to Intrepid's work with the village. We even had a go at some local instruments ourselves.



Dinner was at Sappingi's brother-in-law's house, a 15 minute walk away. However, is was absolutely pouring with rain and we were all slipping and sliding all over the place. This was a brilliant night, one of my best on the trip so far - the food was great, the people exceptionally friendly and lots of local spirits to keep the party going on well into the early hours.





It was Dennis' birthday the previous night and so he had a lot of rice wine early on, before he passed out on the couch in the living room. The rest of us continued as Sappingi toasted each of us before we drank. If the cup was left with a drop when turned over, another shot followed. Ruby, a friend of Han's and a fellow tour guide, was playing old classics on the guitar like 'Country Road'. As the night wore on, we played all sorts of games (with poles, on each other's backs, limbo), and slowly, those sensible ones, returned back to our nightspot.



Once again, Scotland (Kathleen and Jackie), Han and me were last out, I think around 4am. Apparently, we were very loud on our return and woke everyone up - don't believe it!



The next morning was a struggle as we went for a village tour - nothing special except Carina had a great fall.

Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah, Borneo

Arriving into Kuala Lumpur was a different world - the traffic was normal, for the first time since I left Russia 4 months ago. I was only in town for a day before flying into Borneo, but am planning to return for a few days after my Borneo adventure.

I was excited at arriving into Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Sabah state of Borneo. I would be travelling in a group again having spent 2 months travelling independently. I went shopping for the big climb, which included a foot pump for the tube, so I could pump it up at the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

I met my group leader, Han, and the other people travelling on the trip:
Australia: Mitch and Jo
New Zealand: Matt and Kristine
Denmark: Kennets and Carina
Switzerland (with a bit of German): Benedicte and Nicole
Scotland: Kathleen and Jackie
Canada: Dennis (my roommate)



The leader was a local guy, shorter than me and maybe equally as thin - seemed like a fun guy - he was also teaching me some key local phrases: 'a rum a tea' (cheers), 'thri ma kasih' (thank you) and 'a bis' (bottoms up), a phrase that would be used very frequently in the coming days. We headed out for an Indian together and then to BB bar. It was our first night on the trip and a messy one at that. Australia, Scotland, Han and me went onto Cocoon club, a local club with live music, anything from local music to hip hop. Scotland, Han and me stayed out until the place closed, around 4am I think, before we headed back, when en route, I attempted to climb a tree.

The next morning, we left for Kiau, a Dusun village.

Saigon, Saigon

So I am miles behind on the blog now - having too much fun in Borneo.

What did I do in Saigon?



After having to find a hotel at around 4am in the morning, we didn't too anything too strenuous in Saigon. The most activity we did was playing pool, which after a while, especially having not done too much exercise in a while, can really do you back in. Dave and I found this pool hall, which was full of locals who worked and played against customers for money. I beat probably the best guy in the place, but then lost 3-1 to Rosie who was a demon on the table, and 100,000 dong along with it, but only because she decided during the game that we were playing 'Vietnamese' rules.

We did manage to visit the War Remnants Museum, which gave an excellent depiction of the War and its impact on the soldiers, including American soldiers, civilians and the landscape.

In the evening, we hopped from bar to bar - first up was the rooftop bar at Caravelle Hotel, then Go2 bar on Backpackers' Alley, Q Bar and finally the nasty Apocalypse Now, which was full of 'working' girls.



Rather than go to Phu Quoc Islands, we headed for a couple of days into the Mekong Delta as the weather was fairly thundery. The two days were excellent. Chilled out rides on longboats, hectic ferry crossings, watched a performance from local musicians, and lots of floating markets, some of which were a bit lame. We spent the night in Cau Tao, which is the largest town in the Delta region. We decided to jump on the back of a motorbike and find a pool place. We were taken quite far from our hotel, but the place was great. After some pool, we chilled in a coffee shop which had back-to-back episodes of the original Tom and Jerry cartoons - I think we were watching for at least an hour. We then had a local dinner - hotpot out on the plastic stools on the pavement.

We returned to Saigon and met Seb, Sally and Jay, who I hadn't realised earlier but was on the same boat in Halong Bay. It ended up being a very late one in Alley Boo. We also saw an amusing, but quite sad, little kid who dancing like he's Usher in front of tourists for money, while his mum just sits there hoping he brings in plenty of cash. The video is on the blog too and worth checking out.



My final day in Saigon and Vietnam was spent at the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of tunnels the Viet Cong built to defend themselves from the air raids during the War. We saw the booby traps the Viet Cong used - quite amazing, but very sick and deadly. I went into a couple of sections of the tunnels, whose entrance was only 30x40cm. It was very narrow and claustrophobic, and was on all fours for a lot of the time, but it was very cool. We finished off shooting AK47s and the M60 machine gun - amazing, but very loud - wartime must have been hellish with so many going off at the same time.

Appropriately, I ended my visit to Vietnam with a kebab and some pool before heading to the airport amid crazy drivers in treachorous weather conditions.

I have mixed feeling about Vietnam. Most people are out to rip tourists off, it's difficult to find a place where you don't get hassled constantly by street hawkers, the roads are heaving with motorbikes, and worst of all, there are hookers everywhere. Yet, it had a very vibrant feel about it and was seemingly very capitalist. The scenery, particularly in the north, was stunning. I suspect the torrential rain we got for the past week or so didn't help, but I'm sure I will return, if only to visit Phu Quoc islands and Dalat.

Cruising quickly down the coast of Vietnam

I returned to Hanoi to meet up with Dave. After giving him a quick flavour of Vietnamese life (kebabs, noodle soup, spring rolls and bia hoi), we got an overnight sleeper bus to Hue.

Hue

The bus ride was miserable for me, of Vietnamese size, let alone Dave, and we were glad when we arrived into Hue mid morning.

Hue was the imperial capital of the Nguyen Dynasty between 1802 and 1945, and suffering considerable damage from American firepower and bombings during the Vietnam (American) War due to its central position placed very near to the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam (Hue was located in the South).



We arranged a couple of motorbikes to take us around the Citadel, the Thien Mu Pagoda and a few of the many tombs of past emperors. The trip was eventful to say the least. We were riding on narrow paths through local villages and our motorbike riders were absolutely nuts.



The Citadel, although clearly damaged considerably during the War, was amazing and we rushed around to see as much of it as possible. It is similar in design to the Forbidden City in Beijing.



Minh Mang's tomb was very pictoresque (especially for a tomb), but the ultimate had to be our visit to Emperor Gia Long's tomb. It resides across a narrow river. We ended up paying a random lady some money to take the bikes and us across the river. When we arrived at the tomb it was clear that not many people visit this one, and the local dude let us into the inside of the tomb for a small 'discretionary fee'.



That evening was equally eventful. We headed to DMZ Bar and met up with a couple of random Aussies. After some recreational pool, it became very competitive, especially when the locals got involved. They play every day of every week and are pretty amazing. However, I managed to keep my cool and beat them, to the delight of other travellers. We also had a couple of absolutely twats (one Canadian and one American) who decided to get drunk and act like idiots in the bar and on the streets, including running onto the top of a moving car! Just when we thought out night was over, we headed to a food stall across a river. By this time, it was fairly late and we had no idea where the motos were taking us. The ride was fun though - I decided to sit on the moto (which also had Dave and the driver on it) backwards! After some pho (noodle soup), we headed to Brown Eyes, where we were briefly before walking back to our hotel. Before we could go into our hotel, the moto demanded we pay him 300,000 dong, about 6 times what we should have paid. When we refused, it got messy - foul language, phoning his boys to come over and sort us out, and other threats. WE survived.



We headed on a tour of the DMZ the following day not feeling so good from the previous night and lack of sleep, where we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels. The tunnels were built to shelter the people from the intense bombing in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The complex grew to include wells, kitchens, rooms for each family and spaces for healthcare. Around 60 families lived in the tunnels; as many as 17 children were born inside the tunnels as well. Dave is very claustrophobic and decided not to come in. I went in and could not believe how tight it was. No more than 50cm wide and 120cm in height. On the return journey, I was not feeling great and yacked up ... in the minibus.

We headed back into Hue and missed our shuttle to the bus station for our bus to Hoi An. So we had to get on the back of a moto. It was a 30min+ journey and very painful - I was carrying my backpack, daypack and tube while on the bike!

Hoi An

I was still not feeling all that well as we got into Hoi An, but was still out until the early hours. The weather was shocking - constant, heavy rain. However, not surprising given it was the monsoon season.

Hoi An has a river flowing through it and the banks either side are heaving with restaurants, bars and numerous tailoring shops (for which it's famous for), all of which can turn around garments in a day or two copying whatever you choose from magazines and catalogues.



However, given the weather, much of our time in Hoi An was spent playing pool, for fun, but also challenging both locals and tourists, moving between Tam Tam Cafe and King Kong Club. We ended up most nights in Salsa Club, where I would be the resident DJ, making the most of the music on iTunes and the laptop. By this time, I was on fire and winning almost every game with flawless pool, such that when Dave drew 2-2 at the appalling table at King Kong bar, he made a note of it with a marker pen on the wall.



We got off our backsides on our final day in town and headed to My Son, a Hindu temple complex, built between the 4th and 14th century, and heavily bombed by American B-52s during the War. It was a pleasant outing out of town and definitely worth the trip.



We returned to town, headed to Treats for a quick game of pool, followed by Tam Tam to watch the Liverpool game, King Kong for more pool, and finally Salsa Club around 2am. A couple of Swedeish guys were travelling with their musical instruments and we had a jam session around 4am when there were only a few of us left in the bar and the bartenders.



At around 5am, we spontaneously decided to get motos to Cau Dao beach for sunrise. It was great (not for my cold though) as we went for a swim and played football with the many locals there.

After a few hours kip, we got a car to Da Nang and an onward train to Nha Trang.

Nha Trang



The weather was now worse than before and it was pointless spending much time in Nha Trang, a seaside town. We got in late and headed to Crazy Kim's for food and then more pool at Why Not bar. Somehow, we ended up being out again until the early hours. The next day, we decided to leave for Saigon, but there was major disruption to public transport due to the tropical storm. Our train was delayed until early evening. We decided to pamper ourselves at Crazy Kim's spa - full body massage and foot massage - great!

Sapa and the top of Vietnam

I finally left Hanoi and heading north to Sapa. It was a different planet to Hanoi - quiet, open, and very beautiful with a wonderful lake in its centre. I checked into an amazing guesthouse (Darling Guesthouse) with stunning views of the surrounding hill terraces.



I rented a motorbike for the very first time and what an experience. It was very messy with a few close shaves, but I survived. I visited a few minority villages around Sapa and the scenery along the way was stunning.



That afternoon, I also climbed Dragon Jaw Hill and saw a traditional show by local minority performers. It wan't very popular and I was one of few tourists there, but the show was well worth it (despite the electricty outage in the middle).



Before I headed off to climb Vietnam's highest peak, I went out for a few games of pool and ended up hustling, successfully, a couple of cocky locals. My pool game was back after a long barren spell!

It was time to leave town to climb Mount Fansipan which at its peak stands at 3143 metres above sea level. Most people take 3 days, 2 nights to climb the mountain and return, but 3 others and me only had 2 days and 1 night. The walk wasn't too difficult although I had a cold which didn't help matters. We slept in a cabin at 2800 metres. It was very cold, close to zero celsius, and we were sleeping on bamboo sticks! The final walk to the summit was simply amazing, and the views from the top made the miserable night's sleep worthwhile.



We made a brisk return down the mountain, where evewn the guide was struggling to keep up with Neil and me. I chilled for a bit before heading to the train station with a soft seat overnight train ticket to Hanoi. I decided to trade my ticket with some local dude to get a sleeper bed. I ended up with the policeman's cabin on the train, as the dude paid of the cop so that I could sleep in his 'bed'.

The stunning Halong Bay

I headed to Halong Bay for a couple of days with a good bunch, probably 30 or so of us in total. There were a lot of Irish people as well as a few Canadians, Birts and others - a good mix in all. We had the perfect ingredients for a complete mess.

Halong is a few hours from Hanoi, from where we caught a boat, which we stayed on for the next 24 hours or so.



The afternoon was spent tucking into the great food on offer - prawns, pork strippers, chicked, vegetables - all really good. We then headed out on kayaks. The scenery was spectacular and we found a very quiet place to kayak, away from the many other boats out in the bay.

On our return, the mess began to take effect. Drinking games had begun early, and everyone was jumping into the water from the top deck before the 10pm deadline kicked in. I became the resident DJ as my iPod and choice of music proved popular. As the games continued, the 'you are not to jump into the water past 10pm' message was ignored by the vast majority as we repeatly jumped into the cool waters in darkness up until 2am when we decided it was time to chill out. I ended up sleeping around 5am before being disturbed by Chelsey gatecrashing the room I was sharing with Dan.

It was a tough next morning, but a very chilled one as we said goodbye to most of the people and heading back to Halong. The bar tab was ridiculous, but it wasn't to spoil the overall two days which were brilliant fun.

Entry into Vietnam and the carnage that is Hanoi

After a difficult entry where I spent 30 minutes waiting at immigration while the Vietnamese immigration officer looked at the stamps in my passport over and over again, I almost got into a bustup with the minibus driver heading into Hanoi city centre. Welcome to Vietnam!

The place is carnage. Locals sitting on plastic stools on the sidewalk, motorbikes driving on the sidewalk and roads in all directions. It reminded me very much of India - I already liked the place.

I had some really good, although very greasy, local food off the street stalls, mainly consisting of pho (noodle soup) or spring rolls.

As I was waiting for Dave to arrive into town from London, I ended up spending 5 nights in Hanoi, which many who have been would say is 5 days too long. However, I really liked it - the energy, the vibe, the chaos.

During the day, I mostly spent it chilling at Hanoi Backpackers where there was always someone to chat to, including the Vietnamese staff who were happy to teach me key phrases in Vietnamese that proved very helpful on my travels. In the evening, I would look for the few spots open past the midnight curfew, i.e. those places that are willing to bribe the cops to let them stay open. Red Mask was my favourite - good music, nice pool table and chilled vibe. Other good spots were Finnegans, Le Pub, Hair of the Dog. One night, two other guys and me got jumped by four dodgy ladies who jumped off their bikes and onto us just as we were trying to enter our hotel. Luckily, we escaped into the safety of our hotel!



I also spent a ridiculous amount of time in the evenings at the 'bia hoi' corner. Basically, you sit on a plastic chair on a street corner watching the motorbikes, cars, cycles, etc go by constantly. Microbrew is served at around 10p a glass and there are lots of people selling great and really cheap food such as strips of dried squid with chili sauce, noodle soup, and even delicious kebabs.



After one of a few late nights in Red Mask, I came up with the silly idea of forming a human pyramid in the middle of the road - for some reason, everyone bought into the idea! We then watched Lewis Hamilton somehow clinch the F1 World Championship which was followed by 12 hours of US election coverage - Obama was declared the winner at noon local time at which point I decided to head out for some sightseeing!



The weather was appalling. Tropical storms had flooded most of Hanoi and it was raining heavily all day almost every day I as in town. However, I did manage to get to the lake, the Hoa Lo prison (where John McCann among others were kept during the War), the military museum which had many US tanks, aircrafts etc on display, the Lenin statue opposite, Ho Chi Minh's house, the guy who led Vietnam's Communist era (a hero across the country), and the Temple of Literature, which was similar to many temples in China.



One evening, I also went to the traditional Vietnamese water puppet show which was surprisingly very entertaining.

Although it didn't seem I did much in Hanoi, and despite the constant nagging from street hawkers, I met lots of cool people and it was nice to spend a few days in one place not having to think about where I was going to next.

The wonder that is the ancient city of Angkor

Siem Reap is home to the ancient city of Angkor, home of the Khmer empire from the 9th century to 15th century.

I spent three days going to visit some of the many temples in the area. The place was quite spectacular. In my mind, a candidate for the Eighth Wonder of the World. Despite a long and tiring three days travelling from temple to temple on a moto, where it was either soaring under the bright blue skies or torrential monsoon rains, it was well worth it, even though I was constantly hounded by beggars and touts trying to sell you anything by any means possible. There were often many very steep steps to climb too, which was fairly scary, especially in the pouring rain. I took hundreds of pics, but here are a few of my favourite temples:

Angkor Wat, the largest and most famous of the temples at Angkor



The spectacular Bayon, which resides in Angkor Thom



Ta Prohm, spooky and also used as a location for the film Tomb Raider



The much smaller, but very impressive Pre Rup temple



The amazing Preah Khan temple



One of many spectacular gates to the temples



Banteay Srei, a little further out, but well worth the visit



Amazing carvings at Banteay Srei



Me at Angkor



It was very wet on day two and three



Bakong, one of the three temples at Roluos



Siem Reap was the largest city I had been to for quite some time and I made the most of it. Dead Fish restaurant was a really cool venue with live music and crocs!



I went out most of the five nights I spent in Siem Reap (yes, five nights), always starting at Angkor What bar. I met lots of people here too, some I had met on my travels in Laos, but also an Intrepid group. We ended up going to Zone One, the only nightclub in town and full of dodgy locals. X Bar was the only other place to go out late and despite being fairly dull, I did manage to stay there until 5am on two occasions.

Despite being a fantastic, must-see place in Cambodia and arguably the world, I was very disappointed by the people. Many were impolite at best, sometimes down right rude. Yes, there the high levels of poverty in Cambodia was very evident, but I found that difficult to excuse the behavious of most hawkers, kids, hotel staff etc. Also, despite being a poor country, I didn't feel the Cambodians necessarily were particularly hard-working, often seeing many of them mulling around on sidewalks playing cards, drinking or on mobile phones.



I left with my tube to head to the beach in Sihanoukville.